


brakebill's hedge witch

by LaPetiteReveuse



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: AU, F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 22:17:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13374195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaPetiteReveuse/pseuds/LaPetiteReveuse
Summary: After Quentin takes off to London for a Fillory writing competition, Julia takes this as her chance to take his place and prove that she was worthy of the school too.





	brakebill's hedge witch

**Author's Note:**

> This is effectively a 'She's the Man' AU that I had on my mind recently. So given the new series starting up, I'm writing it. I hope you enjoy readin it :)

One twist of the wrist, a slight increase in the angle of her third and last finger and voila, the ceiling of the old warehouse transformed before everyone’s eyes. Before a bare wooden ceiling adorned with nothing by dripping pipes; now a cloud. White and snowing above their heads. Julia smiles as she looks to her audience who are all but impressed with her also. It was something the Hedge Society did when they had gotten bored of repeating the same spells again and again. A little challenge to keep the fingers warm and the brains ticking. A glorified charades. If a spell could be guessed before it was cast then you won the point, if the spell was cast first well then you lost. It was simple, yet greatly entertaining.

Julia was quick at this game, her hands moved quicker than people’s mouth could even form the words. That was if they had been able to even guess the spells, which they never were. Julia’d read up on spells that hadn’t been heard of in centuries, and with a few attempts was able to cast like they were Popper’s elementary level.

Julia merely watches with a smile on her face as her crowd, easily forgetting their game stand and throw the snow about. Gathering clumps into their hands to toss about like children.

‘At twelve points ahead I’d say you won easily,’ Pete tells her wrapping his arms around her from behind. She stands in his embrace happily for a while as the snow begins to dwindle to a small flurry before disappearing altogether.

‘Yeah, well, perhaps you should try to keep up.’ She remarks feeling his laugh in his chest behind her.

‘Keep up with you? No chance.’ He laughs he holds her hand in his running his fingers over hers. At one time this had sent sparks up her hands, perhaps an effect of the magic he seems to let off with even just the smallest contact. But now, whether she had just gotten used to it, or it no longer had any effect on her, all she felt were feathers across her hands tickling them and nothing more.‘Seriously,’ he says when he realises he’s getting no reaction from her, ‘I think you’re probably better than those clowns at Brakebills.’

He turns, feeling the sting of his words. Her recent refusal from Brakebills has hurt more than she could have voiced. At the first hurdle; the entrance exam had defeated her. Now, she had to spend her days learning all she could at the Hedges Society which only taught so much. There were only so many ranks to climb before you ran out of material. The real stuff; the spells that sent shivers through your spines, the books that held the history of all Magicians from before the turn of the first century. That was all behind lock and key and hidden cloak of Brakebills and without a pass in the entrance exam, there was nothing Julia could do about it.

Pete had gotten in, only continuing to attend the Hedge meeting because he wore his achievement like a badge of honour. She wanted to feel happy for him, but there was something in the back of her head that screamed out that it should have been her ready to attend next week, not him. She was a hundred times better at him at magic. Natural and taught.

‘You think so?’ she asks. She doesn’t know why. She’s not sure she wanted him to answer yes or no. If yes, then why wasn’t she there, if no… well, that could have stung more than the refusal.

He nods and places a kiss on her lips. She knows this is his invitation for something more, but she isn’t in the mood and so pulls back and smiles warmly at him hoping it will be enough.

It is, but there’s something in his face that says only just.

 

The following day, she stands with the rest of the Hedge society at the door of the warehouse.

‘How come no one is going inside?’ she asks waiting for someone to simply walk through the door. It wasn’t as though the door needed a key, it was spell locked. And she recognised everyone there, so there should have been nothing to stop them going inside. By now people had already been there half an hour and were settled into the day.

‘Be our guest,’ one of the Hedges said gesturing to the door.

Julia looked at it again dubiously. No one around was injured so there couldn’t have been too harsh a spell placed. But she gathered there was something from that reaction.

She pushes her hand out to touch the door only to find centimetres from the surface, something she can’t see stops her. Her fingers smack against the field around it. She pulls her hand back, the impact hurting her slightly.

Looking around, no one seemed to know what’s going on, or how to stop it.  
She steps back to get a look, everyone else, trusting her does so also. They watch as Julia tries the spell to unlock the door, only to find no success. She tries another; the previous lock for the door, but again this is unsuccessful.  
Another and another, but nothing works.

‘The Society got closed down.’ A voice shouts from further down the building. A young magician, only about thirteen is standing on her tip-toes to read the message stapled to the wall. ‘Something about amateur magicians being prohibited to exercise without the correct regulations.’ She explains.  
Fury fills everyone stood around, already freezing their asses off for waiting, and now irritated also.

‘What regulations?’ Julia asks, but the girl merely shrugs as she wanders back over to join the rest of the group. What regulations could there be when it came to practising magic?

She could think of only two places where these ‘regulations’ were likely to have been passed; Brakebills and the ‘Elite’ Magicians club over the other side of town. Magicians trying to relive their glory days after Brakebills graduation or those waiting to attend. The prestigious pricks were constantly giving shit to the Hedges simply because they were younger, less experienced, didn’t have the Magic family name, or hadn’t made the Brakebills cut. Yet another reminder that like most things, Magic was reserved for only those who fit the small minority of the fortunate.

‘The Elite’s.’ Julia says through gritted teeth as she marches down the street. A crowd following closely behind them. Looking somewhat like a mob lacking the torches, the wider population of New York were greatly confused by the misfit group of people marching down the streets in a protest they didn’t understand.  
The Elite Magicians club held their meetings in an expensive hotel that towered above them. Julia gulped as she marched inside and up to the front desk.

‘The E.M.C.s, please.’ She demands causing the receptionist, fear in their eyes to pick up the phone and call someone through to the front desk.  
They wait until a tall man, dressed in an expensive suit for no reason other than to look the part comes to address them.

‘Hi, can I help you?’ he asks uninterested.

‘We’re the Hedge Society.’ Julia explains and a smile cracks over the man’s face.

‘Not anymore I hear. I heard you got… exterminated.’

Julie takes it on the chin even though she’s half tempted to remove his tongue for the comment.

‘If there’s anything I can do to help…’ he gestures widely with his hand as he then begins to turn around and walks away.

‘Yes. We want to join.’ Julia says matter-of-factly, crossing her arms. The rest of the Hedges take her lead and too cross their arms.

He laughs, ‘except that.’

‘Come on!’ Julia shouts, causing a commotion in the lobby. The man in the suit tries to quieten her with his hands as a volume level but Julia is having none of it. ‘We’re good enough to practise with you Elites.’

He laughs again, ‘no you are not.’

‘Well, let us demonstrate for you.’ Julia suggests causing a chorus of agreement from behind her.

‘Look…’ he starts before a few others, all adorned in formal wear walk into the lobby also. Pete among them, wearing his tie higher than usual.

‘What’s going on?’ he tries, acting friendly and unable to see how this catastrophe is going to turn out.

‘They want to join the E.M.C.’ the first man explains to Pete who laughs at what he deems a joke before looking to Julia, straight-faced and serious.

‘You’re not serious.’ He says to her, but she scoffs at him as her reply. ‘Jules, this is the Elites. Not some back alley amateur mess about.’

‘Mess about!?’ Julia repeats shouting it loud in anger.

‘Compared to what we do here, yeah. Look you’re good but you’re just Hedges, you can’t keep up with us.’ Pete tells her looking to his Elite friends for help. Unsurprisingly, he receives it in the form of laughs and smiles.

‘You don’t know that.’

‘Actually, I do. I doubt anyone who didn’t pass their Brakebills exam can keep up.’

She takes a second to recover from that one, ‘you said I was a better Magician than half those tossers.’

Pete laughs as he looks around at expecting eyes from all directions, ‘I never said that’ he backpedals trying to convey to Julia to drop the subject. Instead, she sees it, registers it, but presses on.

‘Mmmm,’ she hums to herself as though she’s about to walk out, ‘Pete, fuck you.’

‘Jules, can’t we just end this discussion and talk about it later?’ he bites.  
She nods sweetly, ‘Mmm. Okay, but scrap talking about it later. I don’t want to see your face again unless it’s on a milk carton.’

And then she takes her leave from the lobby followed by the rest of the Hedges.

 

In a fury, she tares her room apart for a cigarette. Screw giving up, if she was going to told she couldn’t practise magic she was going to need some form of outlet and coffee just wasn’t going to cut it.

Unfortunately, after her recent New Years Resolution to quit, she’d gotten rid of any form of drug what so ever. She slumps on the floor of her room considering going to buy some at the store, but another trip out seemed just inconvenient. Quentin usually had some, and after all the cigarette he’s had off her, she was overdue at least one.

She goes to the hall on her way to Quentin’s room when her mother meets her on her way.

‘Julia! I was just looking for you! Where have you been all morning?’

‘Out with friends.’ She says absently. Even if Julia didn’t have to lie, she probably still would have done. Her mother was only barely tolerable on a good day, and today was not one of them.

‘Well, I have something for you,’ she says happily. Julia tries to match her excitability, but she doubted even a small child filled with birthday cake could have done. ‘You wait here.’

Julia stands still, tempted to make a run for Quentin’s room, but stays still.

When her mother returns, she’s holding a giant gown. Horrific, large and old. Yet Julia smiles appreciatively as her mom holds it against her to size up.

‘Mom, I have told you this before, but I’m not going to the ball thing.’

‘Debutante.’ Her mother corrects, ‘and I know you think that. But you could change your mind.’

Julia nods gratefully, ‘maybe.’ Her mother seems satisfied with this answer and Julia is able to sneak away to Quentin’s room.

She opens the door wide to find Quentin packing a bag.

He turns panicked but sees that it's her and relaxes again, shoving another shirt into his bag.

‘Hey, Jules.’ He says absently, and Julia understands she’s going to have to drag out of Quentin what the bag is for.

‘What’s the bag for?’ she sits on his bed and opens his bedside draw taking out a pack of cigarettes. They’re old, from two summers ago Julia guesses, it was the last time she’s seen Quentin buy cigarettes. The last because he always just chose the cheapest and it took a while for the taste to leave Julia’s mouth fully.

‘I’m going away for a while.’ He says shrugging on his jacket and picking up his bag.

‘Away?’ she asks, ‘Uni starts in a week.’

‘Yeah…’ he hums. ‘I might, possibly, miss the start of term.’

‘You shit!’ Julia shouts, frightening Quentin somewhat. She holds up her finger warningly to him, ‘You get accepted into Brakebills of all places and you decide it’s time or a vacation to…’ she pauses, lowers her finger, ‘you never said where. But I doubt it’ll be worth it.’

‘London.’ He says quietly, like a dog being told off.

‘London!?’ She shouts. Quentin panics and rushes over to cover her mouth with his hand.

‘Shhhh. Your mom thinks I’m going to stay with my dad, and I told my dad I was staying here.’ He explains, ‘Sometimes I’m glad he got divorced again.’  
Julia takes a deep breath, ‘So… you’re just skipping off to London for what exactly?’

‘Plummer is running a competition to win a publishing deal. You just gotta be in England to compete.’

Julia rolls her eyes. Of course, a Fillory trip. ‘Q, you’re going all the way to England to write a fanfic?’

‘No… Sorta. Yes. But if I win I get to publish it, Jules. You know this is my dream.’

She nods, ‘How long is the comp?’

He shrugs, ‘Four weeks.’

‘You’ll be away for a month?’

Quentin nods, standing proudly in front of Julia who can’t really say anything else about the subject that she hadn’t already said. ‘Well good luck, I guess.’ She says, unsure herself if that’s right.

He nods, happily before picking up his bag and walking out of the room.  
There was a moment stood in Quentin’s room she wanted to swing a bat around and tear the place apart. He had it. He’d gotten in. He was one of the Elite, and yet all he could think about was his goddamned childhood books. About worlds that didn’t exist and a future that Julia wasn’t all too sure he was going to meet. But she could blame him. She threw away Yale for a change at Brakebills. Anyone else would call that more foolish than what Quentin had done.

She sits to his window and lights up one of Quentin’s cigarettes. God, if they hadn’t been bad before they were like shit now. She chokes down the taste and snubs it out on the window ledge outside.

Perhaps there was a way she could benefit from this. With Quentin out of town, there was an empty spot at Brakebills. And this might be the opportunity she needed to fill that spot.


End file.
